Absurd Journey is a project developed by Floriane Dardard and Lucile Belliveau (Catastroflux collective), exploring the concepts of an absurd world and of an external journey through the world and an internal journey through oneself leading to inner peace. It is a journey from one place to the same place, with conscience gained in the process. In the end, the absurdity is still present but instead of letting it submerge us and submit us, our newly gained self-knowledge allows meaning, peace and human connection to emerge for each individual.
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring, will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.” ― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
This piece was developed during a two-week residency at Tanztendenz, Munich, Germany in February 2017 and a short extract of the duet was presented in the Open Studios. It was refined during a one month residency at PlayPractice, Bangalore, India in September 2017. It was premiered as a 40min duet in Shoonya center for arts and somatic practices, Bangalore. Later, Floriane and Lucile invited three local dancers with a classical Indian dance and contemporary background to collaborate in the creation of a group piece based on their world that was also premiered at Shoonya.
The French premiere of the work took place on June 10th, 2018 at l’Ogresse, Paris, and more performance dates will come soon!
Collaborating artists in Bangalore: Priyanka Chandrasekhar, Tejaswini Halthore and Shashi Kumar. Special thanks to Ashok Kumar for participating in the process and to Abhilash Ningappa for providing space and guiding us in the city.
Photo in Munich: Michael Reinecke
Photo in Bangalore: Jassim Ali and Rajath Rajeev
Photo in Paris: Laurence Belliveau
Video: Abhilash Ningappa
Video Editing: Floriane Dardard